We identify empirically the effects of environmental collaboration in
the supply chain on operational and financial performance of
manufacturing firms.Self-reported survey data is combined with financial
reporting data on 135 manufacturing firms operating in Finland.
Environmental collaboration within the firm and externally with
customers and suppliers is studied against measures of firm performance
by applying descriptive analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and
generalised linear modelling.The novelty in this research is the
combination of self-reported survey data with financial reports-based
data in analysing the effects of three dimensions of environmental
collaboration on firm performance. The findings suggest thatwhile
external collaboration had mostly positive effects, internal
collaboration seems to be more problematic. The results highlight the
need for supply chain focus in environmental issues. Manufacturing firms
should not consider environmental efforts merely as an extra burden;
there seem to be ways of putting in more effort without jeopardising
performance.